ProPublica released an article today about how "dark money" was used to "control redistricting in many states."
In the November election, a million more Americans voted for Democrats seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives than Republicans. But that popular vote advantage did not result in control of the chamber. Instead, despite getting fewer votes, Republicans have maintained a commanding control of the House. Such a disparity has happened only three times in the last century.
I think this is a very important article and I encourage people to read it. However, the purpose of this diary is to put forward a series of conclusions I've come to based on years of observing what I consider to be a very focused and well-financed movement to usurp democracy (or the remnants of it) in the country by corporatist interests.
My concern is that for some reason people don't recognize the actual state of affairs when it comes to the crippling of our government (by design), and the rising threat represented by what I consider to be the (eventual) paramilitary force of the fascist billionaire oligarchs, in the form of the NRA.
I'm not going to get into explaining who the NRA constituency is, but curious readers can check out websites like "Right Wing Watch," to get a clear idea.
In a nutshell, here's what's happening: There is a cabal of billionaires and mega-corporations acting in concert to bring down the government of the United States, and to impose their will, their agendas, their world view, regardless of the will of the people and democratic institutions.
In fact, they have become so bold as to publicly sneer against the majority of voters, calling them moochers who want "stuff from the government."
These individuals are the perfect representation of the "enemy within" mentioned in the oath to protect the Constitution.
With their money, they have been able to corrupt and infiltrate very large segments of our governmental institutions, both at state levels, and at a national level.
They've also corrupted law enforcement agencies, and educational institutions.
Of course, the other side of that coin is the fact that greedy self-serving officials at many of these institutions do not understand the concept of being a "public servant," and are instead extending their creepy lusty hands trying to enrich themselves as fast as they can.
The purpose of this "movement" is to render governance, government institutions, totally ineffective. They want to cripple the United States government which is basically a way of crippling democracy and the will of the people--and instead supplant it with a fascist corporatocracy.
Once government becomes atrophied and ineffective, a number of things start happening; proper regulatory oversight collapses, allowing criminal racketeering operations by well-positioned and connected "contractors" and their politician enablers (on the take), from both parties. Little by little, a sense of insecurity and general malaise spreads through society. People become anxious, afraid, and they start pining for order and solutions and security.
Through their control of much of the U.S. media and a large number of corrupt politicians (on the take), these fascist oligarchs then promise a better society through private, for-profit initiatives. In the final analysis, this means supplanting the public sphere, a government by the people and for the people, with the ethos and values aligned with corporate interests--a corporatocracy.
This stuff has been developing for decades, but almost all the pieces have been put in place by now, the fascist oligarchs are now exerting their control with a series of increasingly thuggish and outrageous moves, state by state, and at the national level.
A lot of the current situation with the so-called "fiscal cliff," and today's in-your-face, outrageous and thuggish "press conference" by the NRA, is all part of this movement.
The NRA would come to represent the armed wing of these billionaires sociopaths, in the final analysis.
When people warn about the rise of fascism in the U.S., many respond with disbelief. They point out to the past, seeking comfort in the fact that people are not being dragged from their beds by jack-booted paramilitary thugs.
But every era is different. Every country is different, and thus fascism will manifest itself in different ways, not always resembling the past.
What does not change, ever, is the fact that these types of tyrannical thugs are always a threat to any country; they are always looking for ways to usurp democracy; they are deranged, megalomaniacal in their outlook.
Folks, this is what we are facing today. Markos and others keep pointing out the latest results of PPP polling; they point out that people want to live a decent life, and have a functioning government; and they point out the results of elections.
That's all fine, but in a power struggle with deranged people, lead by authoritarian and megalomaniacal billionaire thugs, those who are able to exercise blunt power (as they are doing in state legislatures), and intimidate with their own paramilitary force (as they are getting ready to do under the direction of the NRA), guest who has the final word?
Of course, at the end of the day, it was our collective lack of vigilance that let this happen, so ultimately if things get much worst and these people are able to take total control, it was us as a society, that let this happen.